Ritual in the Kraith Universe
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| Title: | Ritual in the Kraith Universe |
| Creator: | Joyce Yasner |
| Date(s): | January 1974 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Star Trek: TOS |
| Topic: | Kraith |
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| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Ritual in the Kraith Universe is a seven-page critical essay by Joyce Yasner. It was published in T-Negative #22.
According to the last line of the article, it was intended to be the first of a two-part series. The second part of this essay, however, was not published, at least in T-Negative.
Some topics discussed:
Introduction
"A scientist and a mystic, it seems to me, should make strange bedfellows. The scientist's reliance on experimentation and deductive logic and the mystic's reliance on ritual and magic betray fundamentally opposite approaches to life. That the Kraith universe not only fails to make a distinction between the two, but even implies that there is none, puzzles me."
Excerpts
Few of us who watch Star Trek would deny that Spock is a scientist who prides himself on his logic. So, too, are the Vulcan people depicted as logical and scientifically oriented. What place, if any, does ritual have in the Vulcan culture? To answer this question, we must first ask what function ritual serves. Rituals create, first of all, a sense of belonging or group. They prescribe a series of actions and words that, once performed, serve to distance, remove, or help make more tolerable what would ordinarily be disturbing. But although rituals serve these valuable social functions, they are essentially illogical.
The Vulcans, as we know, are proud of their ability to control themselves. To lose this control during pon-farr is, there fore, so unbearably horrible to them that they can only try to distance the horror by ritual, The important thing is for us to know the Vulcan's attitude toward this ritual. It is my belief that they abhor koon-ut-kal-if-fee. For despite their society's accomplishments, the Vulcans find they must resort to the brutality and illogic they despised themselves for in their early history in order to live with a biological necessity. Spock is as ashamed of the illogic of koon-ut-kal-if-fee as he is ashamed of the illogical behavior he displays during pon-farr. But while he is truly powerless to escape the latter, the same cannot be said of the former. This is the bitter irony of Vulcan life.
There is, however, abundant evidence that the Affirmation is not a necessity at all. Spock, according to Star Trek, is only 36 to 40 years old at the end of the third season. He has therefore lived approximately one quarter of his life (assuming the Vulcan life span to be, on the average, 160 years) without ever experiencing an Affirmation. And yet, according to the Kraith universe, Spock is a successful and even important member of Vulcan society. He is chosen to lead an Affirmation for an important group of people ("Spock's Affirmation"). How, we may ask, did Spock qualify for such a post? It cannot be argued that he experienced an Affirmation vicariously. If he did, then so may everyone else unfortunate enough to have missed one, and the Affirmation would obviously not be a necessity. (See Ruth Berman's story "The Disaffirmed," T-Negative 15, which has been accepted into the Kraith series.)
We have, therefore seen only one Vulcan ritual on Star Trek (koon-ut-kal-if-fee). Like most rituals, it is illogical and acknowledged to be such. Yet it serves an indispensable function for the Vulcan people, distancing for them the one most abhorrent aspect of their lives, the biological necessity pon-farr. The Kraith universe, too, shows us ritual, but it is not in the least like that which we have seen on Star Trek. Motivated by religious reasons, and without physical necessity so far as we are shown, the Kraith universe's ritual deviates in spirit from what we have seen on Star Trek. It establishes for the Vulcan people a radically different world view, one which changes their character as established by the show and changes the meaning of the show.